04 January, 2013

It's Not the Deficit Stupid!

I feel like slapping someone... wake up! The problem with today's economy is not current budget deficits and national debt! It is not! Our problem is lack of jobs, and the markets the employed make for more job creation. The only reason an employer creates a job is when they need someone to work. Taxes, health care, national debt don't matter. They want to sell something and they need buyers. They only create jobs if demand for what they sell requires it. All deficit reduction does right now is kill jobs. Period. Yes, the budget needs to get better balanced but not now, especially since more than half of the current deficit is caused by the recession. Recover from that and half the problem is solved! Get out of the stupid wars and more is saved. Get the economy booming with education and infrastructure now while money is cheap! Austerity fails! It failed Japan's stagnation for 20 years and now Europe is dying with its failed austerity efforts. WTFU!http://harpers.org/blog/2013/01/america-is-having-the-wrong-fiscal-argument/

"Deficit-cutting under the current circumstances is bad economics, according both to theory and to historical precedent. Austerity economics are palpably and tragically failing in Europe, yet the same types who urge austerity on Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and even France — not to mention the non-Eurozone giant, Britain — are also urging it in broad consensus in America. And they are succeeding. Dedicated to their polite even-handedness, meanwhile, the media have tended to blame both sides and to assume unquestioningly that deficit reduction is required, rather than identifying the clear culprits responsible for sustaining our economic mess. These culprits are not evenly distributed across the political spectrum. In order of importance, they are:"

The Tea Party Republicans who have been working for an economic policy driven by ideology and a hatred of most social policies.

self-appointed “common sense” centrists like the powerful Campaign to Fix the Debt

Third is the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO’s economics are utterly neoclassical, which means it is conservative, in that it almost always favors less government spending. Its projections generally assume that high budget deficits will crowd out private investment and slow economic growth.